Gutter guards include a perforated planar surface that spans the rain gutter opening to allow water to drain into the gutter while preventing debris from doing so. The front of the guard is usually secured or retained on the front lip of the gutter, for example by means of fasteners, a clip system or by shaping the front edge of the guard such that it is physically engaged on or under the lip.
In some cases, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,614,185 to Brochu, the guard is designed to seat in a recessed position in the gutter. Such an arrangement creates a lip or wall at the front of the guard to stop fast moving water from simply flowing across the guard and to the ground, which risks defeating the purpose of the gutter. Despite the front lip or wall formed by a recessed gutter guard, large quantities of fast-flowing water from the roof can overwhelm the apertures in the forward portion of the guard where accumulating water can spill over the front lip of the recessed gutter guard before it can drain through the apertures.
Older-style prior art rain gutters are typically secured to the fascia of the building by a spike and ferrule system in which a nail or spike is inserted into a ferrule extending from the front of the gutter and through the rear wall of the gutter, so as to embed in the fascia. Spike and ferrule systems usually involve unthreaded nails or spikes that may not provide a secure fastening to the fascia and are sometimes difficult to install, particularly for do-it-yourselfers. More recently, the use of gutter hangers has become the preferred means of installing gutters. Gutter hangers extend between the front and rear walls of the gutter and a wall screw is inserted through the hanger, through its rear wall and into the fascia. Gutter hangers are provided at spaced locations along the length of the gutter as illustrated in FIG. 1. The present applicant supplies gutter hangers with a pre-installed threaded fastener to facilitate installation.
However, gutter hangers present a potential obstacle to installation of recessed gutter guards. Guards are typically manufactured in predetermined lengths of roll-formed product having a uniform profile along their lengths. As some gutter hangers have shoulders near the top rear of the gutter, the presence of the shoulders inhibits the ability to install a guard any deeper into the gutter than the height of the gutter hangers. For example, Canadian Patent No. 2,597,976 to Brochu discloses a guard that includes a planar top portion and a rear wall that extends along the rear of the gutter to support the guard on the bottom of the gutter. The presence of the rear wall renders the disclosed system unusable with gutter hangers that have a shoulder as the rear wall of the guard would be impeded by the hangers.
The rear of the guard may be secured by fasteners or it may passively abut either the rear of the gutter, the fascia or in some cases be wedged under the shingles of the roof. The use of fasteners at the rear of the guard increases the chance of water seepage into the underlying fascia of the building. US Patent Publication No. US 2009/0031638 to lannelli avoids the use of fasteners at the rear of the guard by wedging the guard between the roof structure and the roof shingles. That approach is obviously labour intensive, requires skill, risks snapping the shingles if they are brittle and may be difficult to achieve after construction of the roof has been completed. It is also limited by the proximity of the roof line to the gutter, which may vary from building to building and allows rainwater to shoot off the front of the gutters.
US Patent Publication No. US 2009/0108144 to Brochu discloses a passive abutment of an angled rear portion of the guard against the fascia or a hook that engages the rear wall of the gutter. Such passive support systems have the advantage of being easy to install and of not requiring additional fasteners or specialized tools. However such systems run the risk of improper installation if the rear of the guard is pushed down hard enough to seat the rear of the guard below its most effective height. The same result can follow from the weight of snow or ice. This can result in bending of the guard along its length or if installed too low, obstruction of the flow of water along the gutter.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a partially recessed roll-formable gutter guard that is easy to install in conjunction with gutter hangers. Another object of the invention is to avoid the use of fasteners at the rear of the guard. It is a further object of the invention to minimize the accumulation of water at the front of the gutter guard.
These and other objects of the invention will be better understood by reference to the detailed description of the preferred embodiment which follows. Note that not all of the objects are necessarily met by all embodiments of the invention described below or by the invention defined by each of the claims.